04 Executive Summary
theibcdaily
Assessed to be in good health
Sam Barnett CEO, MBC Group
Region: UAE By Chris Forrester
MBC’s CEO Sam Barnett told delegates at IBC’s keynote opening panel, Assessing the health of broadcast TV, that his networks are in great shape despite the challenges of signal jamming and some countries exerting pressure over social media in the MENA region. There have also been the political and sectarian problems over the past months. But it isn’t all doom and gloom. Far from it. “We have just won the rights to the important Saudi soccer league for the next 10 years, so we have added four channels to the line-up to cover this action,” said Barnett. “We are also discussing possibilities for Egypt’s main soccer league with our MBC Egypt Channel, and we have aspirations to bring high-quality content to soccer- mad Egyptians. Our focus now is to bring international quality to the Saudi matches. We think this is a very important move for us especially given the importance of soccer to the region. “Saudi Arabia is building 11 new stadiums to boost the on- the-ground experience, and is tapping into this buzz. The games will be available region- wide, and the vision is to take them even further afield.” Barnett, who gained his MBA at INSEAD, has been running the Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) since 2002 when it relocated from London (where it had been based since 1991) to Dubai, and supporting MBC’s Saudi Arabian chairman Sheikh Waleed Al Ibrahim. The pair have grown MBC from a single channel to a massive network of 18 channels which dominates Middle East broadcasting. MBC now has targeted channels for kids, drama, ‘action’, Bollywood and movies in Arabic, English and
Farsi/Persian. Its influence via its
24/7 Al Arabiya news channel was modelled on the BBC for impartiality and professionalism. MBC is widely recognised to be the local industry leader, and has adopted HDTV for its main channels and is also preparing for the arrival of 4K. It is the broadcast home for the immensely popular Arab Idol show (the first episode of the new season went out on 5th of September to an audience of 92 million), and its hugely important Ramadan dramas are a highlight for Arab viewing.
It is investing
significantly in local production and last year opened its new O3 Drama Production Studios (and operated with Dubai’s TECOM and Stargate Middle East) where episodes are being created on an “industrial scale” and capable of turning out a show in a day. “We have been
bringing drama onto our networks from other Arab production houses, and often dubbing Turkish output into Arabic. We know that local drama which addresses issues of interest to our viewers in the region will then be watched, and they’ll do better than imports from abroad. We see this as a big growth sector for us, and we hope to sell more of our output overseas. Our historical dramas have always done well for us, and have already been of interest internationally.”
“We have found a way to produce very high quality programming at a price that’s manageable”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52